Mount Hood ascent has never been easy (Letter to the editor)

Scott Rubey incorrectly suggests that Portland's climbing community considered Mount Hood's south side route to be a walk-up until "conditions changed" 10 or 20 years ago. He's wrong.

Local climbers did not treat Mount Hood that way when I first climbed it, in 1966. Proper technique with an ice axe, crampons and rope travel was standard fare then, and always has been.

I'm not as clear as Rubey seems to be about who is to blame for setting "casual expectations" about climbing our mountain -- if indeed that is actually the problem that results in accidents. But he is way off-base when he says the climbing community is responsible for doing so.